ANW Command Card

[tpope]

A few weeks ago when I was playing around with the demo (before I'd started posting on the frum) I had some free time at work and pieced toegther a command card from the manual. It was a good way to learn how to render keyboard keys in InDesign, and I needed something like that anyway.

When I later found the official card, I just took what I'd done and merged it into that design, pulling some graphics out of the manuals to fill space. It's almost identical to the official one, just with color icons and different key designs. At some point I'll probably rework it a bit into something that's a bit more intuitive for my own use, but I figured I'd post it here if anyone was interested.

Download PDF Version (293 Kb Zip file)

No infringement of copyright is intended here, and I'm happy to supply the source files to AGSI or Matrix if asked.

[Shemar]

This looks great. If I remember corretcly one of the keys was wrong in the original chart. I don't have the game on this computer so I can't verify but I think it was either the Map Scale or the lat/Long display keys. Did you fix/verify that?

[tpope]

ORIGINAL: Shemar

This looks great.

Thanks! I hope it's useful.

If I remember corretcly one of the keys was wrong in the original chart. I don't have the game on this computer so I can't verify but I think it was either the Map Scale or the lat/Long display keys. Did you fix/verify that?

I'm afraid not, and while I've used most of the key commands at least once, those two functions I've still been doing manually with the preferences dialog. One of the other reasons I made this card, which partially succeeded, was to learn the keys in the process. [:)]

I can update the file easily enough if there are errors or omissions.

[FreekS]

Looks great and very usefull! Freek

[noxious]

Indeed, thank you Had been using a copy of the H2 card with some annotations on it

[hermanhum]

Nice job there.

The 'L' hotkey is actually the 'N' hotkey for enabling the Lat/Long overlay.

BOL fire can also be initiated by Ctrl+B.

What are the Zoom window hotkeys 0-9?

[tpope]

ORIGINAL: hermanhum

Nice job there.

Thanks.

The 'L' hotkey is actually the 'N' hotkey for enabling the Lat/Long overlay.
BOL fire can also be initiated by Ctrl+B.

I'll make that change and addition when I can get back to the file (which I'm afraid won't be until mid-next week).

What are the Zoom window hotkeys 0-9?

I have no idea. They were on the old card so I replicated them on this one.

Tom

[ssclark]

Nice!!  I did my own (text only) hot keys card, but just based on the hot keys listed in the manual.  Thus, I have the K (mark contact as "probably killed") and M (toggle GIS graphics, whatever that is) on it.  Probably pretty meaningless keys.

Oh, and also the , and . keys for sonobuoys.

[hermanhum]

ORIGINAL: ssclark

I have the K (mark contact as "probably killed") and M (toggle GIS graphics, whatever that is) on it. Probably pretty meaningless keys.

Oh, and also the , and . keys for sonobuoys.

Those are good reminders. The "K" Probable Kill hotkey can probably help you if you are using missions. It tells the AI that you suspect the contact to already be dead and thus not waste any weapons on it. I've used it once or twice only to find that target only playing possum and then coming alive to spew SAMs at me! [:D]

It is good that you mention the "," and "." hotkeys can deploy sonobuoys, too. There are some bugs when deploying sonobuoys and those keys can sometimes get around the problems:

Active sonobuoys do not deploy

CASS Active Sonar Sonobuoys carried by S-2 Trackers do not deploy when the "Drop Active Sonobuoy (])" hotkey is depressed. However, they do deploy with "Drop Passive Sonobuoy ([)". "," and "." hotkeys seem to work properly.

Passive sonobuoys will not deploy

Passive sonobuoys will not deploy with "[" hotkey. Active sonobuoys will deploy.

I don't know how complete tpope wants the card, but there is/was another way to deploy passive sonobuoys, too.

The "[" hotkey would deploy the most numerous type of passive sonobuoy. This was usually the cheapest one. Some aircraft carry more than one type of sonobuoy i.e LOFAR and VLAD. "Shift+[" would order the plane to deploy the more sophisticated VLAD in lieu of a LOFAR buoy.

Another one that might be handy for folks to share in AARs is the Alt+F1 key to take a screenshot.

As well, version 3.8.0 added some handy function keys for the Formation Editor:

# 1.3 New behavior of Numpad 9 key in Formation Editor

Good to see others getting active and supporting new members. Thanks for your efforts.

[kipallen]

The CRTL+B for BOL command was designed for Mac users using VPC because the F1 key is disabled in VPC.

[tpope]

Oh how I love the forum bug.  I think about maybe saving my post right after I hit "OK" and submit to the winds od chance. 
 
Long post short, the card is updated (same link above) with about half of the proposed new keys and all of the corrections.  When I have time I'll start from scratch on a new layout that works better with all of the other key commands.  Suggestions and corrections are always welcome, I've got everything above archived for next time I open the file.

[hermanhum]

I looked at your latest revision and think that you might still be missing a couple of fairly important hotkeys.

"k" is the Probable Kill hotkey to prevent the AI from wasting additional weapons on a contact

"Shift+[" is the key to drop lower quantity / higher capability passive sonobuoys.

The card does look good, though. [8D]

[tpope]

I looked at your latest revision and think that you might still be missing a couple of fairly important hotkeys.

"k" is the Probable Kill hotkey to prevent the AI from wasting additional weapons on a contact

"Shift+[" is the key to drop lower quantity / higher capability passive sonobuoys.

The card does look good, though. [8D]

Thanks. Those two are noted in the "add these to the next next revision" note, but I can't really add them without either removing something else or starting from scratch with a new layout. The former seemed like a bad idea and the latter is planned, just as soon as my schedule clears up again.

[rsharp@advancedgamin]

I try to keep the following wiki page updated with any new hotkeys.

http://www.computerharpoon.com/wiki/mai ... le=Hotkeys

[tpope]

ORIGINAL: rsharp@advancedgamin

I try to keep the following wiki page updated with any new hotkeys.

http://www.computerharpoon.com/wiki/mai ... le=Hotkeys

That's terrific, thanks! I'll use that as a baseline when I start to rebuild the card.

[FreekS]

I was chatting with TonyE and remembered an old 'hidden function'.
 
Years ago I was searching for a way to pass messages to the player during gameplay
I settled on a set of ships of which I'd edited the name to be a short order, and which were discovered by a side friendly to a player (never mind the details, something horribly complex and un-elegant).
 
It worked and I used it to pass 'Raid warning' to convoys in a scen called Atlantic (only playable in 363).
 
However years later it was pointed out to me that this functionality exists in H3 (and presumably ANW). In the SE you hit CTRL-F10 (I think) and you can simply type in a message and delay time!
 
Maybe something to validate and put in Command Card? I think there are other SE hotkeys to copy units and such.
 
Freek

[rsharp@advancedgamin]

Following up on this...

CTRL-F10 is valid and adds 'staff messages'.

CTRL-F10 is on the hotkey reference I linked above as well as two new commands for 3.9.4. CTRL-DEL for deletion of all selected units and CTRL-R for deletion of selected reference points.

What other hotkeys might players find userful? Think of features that could be accomplished for selected items or simply menu items that slow you down.

[hermanhum]

ORIGINAL: rsharp@advancedgamin

CTRL-F10 is valid and adds 'staff messages'.

It might be significant to note that this is only applicable for the ScenEditor.

ORIGINAL: rsharp@advancedgamin

What other hotkeys might players find userful? Think of features that could be accomplished for selected items or simply menu items that slow you down.

I have personally resolved not to give AGSI any new feature/function suggestions and I'm going to suggest that others try to exercise the same self-restraint because many of the new functions/features introduced by AGSI into ANW are ill-thought out or poorly implemented (i.e. diesel sub re-charging), some are redundant (i.e. mouse-over map coordinates), and some just cause problems for other functions that already work (i.e. auto-defensive fire).

IMO, if a functional game is to have any chance of appearing anytime in the near future before AGSI abandons ANW and demands another $50 cash infusion for "The Next Harpoon", new feature requests are probably not a good idea. They simply distract from the main effort towards fixing the numerous problems clearly evident in the game and there are already way too many of those. Feature requests also provide AGSI with a convenient excuse when things go wrong. (i.e. "Well, it's a work-in-progress, so bugs should be expected.")



Having said that, here are some present problems in the existing hotkeys (or lack thereof).



This is the menu bar from Harpoon 3.6.3. Once the menu bar has been enabled (by clicking on it and then clicking on the map), each of the pull-down Menu items can be activated by hitting the first letter of the pull down window (i.e. [P] PC, [F] File, [S] Settings, [M] Mission, [W] Window)



This is the menu bar for ANW. Once the menu bar has been enabled (by clicking on it and then clicking on the map), it is not possible to open the pull-down Menu items by hitting the first letter of the pull down window (i.e. [F] File, [Alt+S] Settings, [Alt+M] Mission, [W] Window).

Here are some of the problems:
[ol][*] Instead of activating the pull-down menus with the first letter of their names, the player must now use

[F] File, [Alt+S] Settings, [Alt+M] Mission, [W] Window

This is inconsistent and more awkward than the original H3 arrangement for the following reasons:

• a) A single keystroke is always better and easier to use than a "shift/alt/ctrl +" modified one.
• b) The "M" hotkey isn't used. Hitting "M" does nothing at all in the game, so why change it to Alt+M in the first place?
• c) "S" hotkey currently just enables the Map Scale function. That is a single function usage (it causes one thing to occur). However, the current Alt+S hotkey brings up the Settings pull-down menu which has a multitude of 9 additional sub-windows and many more useful sub-sub-functions.
  
  
  
  For example, the "Edit Waypoint Orders" command can be immensely useful for scenario designers and players alike. The current arrangement triples the number of clicks required to use this function. (A full and detailed example of the debilitating impact the present key layout is available upon request.)
  
  For this reason, the current "S" and the "Alt+S" hotkeys are reversed, IMO. Once Map Scale is enabled, it is likely going to be left on for the duration of the game. However, the player is likely to call up the Settings pull-down menu over and over, again, throughout the game.

[*] All H2 menu commands have keyboard short-cuts. New functions added by ANW are missing them.





For example:
Window Schemes
Edit --> Scenario Re-build menu & related sub-menu commands
Edit --> Batch Re-build menu & related sub-menu commands
Edit --> Batch Export Weapons Edit menu & related sub-menu commands

[*] There is no way to activate the pull-down menu marked with the "*" (asterisk) from the keyboard via hotkey.

[*] The ANW Edit menu has a duplicate. The letter "C" is used to both "Change Start Date and Time" and for "Copying Threat Polygons."



In H3, the letter "R" was used to change the date and time.



[Late Edit] Additional problem with Edit menu found. Image replaced[/ol]

[FreekS]

Great explanation on the Menu-hotkey issue Herman! Indeed for example using 'Edit Waypoint Orders', which I do a lot of in the SE, is very complex today and your suggestion makes a lot of sense.
 
Back to CTRL-F10 for a minute.
There is one issue with it that renders it effectively useless. Namely once you've typed in the delayed messages and closed the window, I know of no way to ever edit or replace those messages. So if you later edit your scen and want to make the message come earlier or later, or if you have a typo, or want to re-use the scen-map and sides for a new scen in the same Battleset, the delayed messages cannot be changed! For CTRL-F10 to be usable this would have to be fixed.
 
Freek

[hermanhum]

ORIGINAL: FreekS

Back to CTRL-F10 for a minute.
There is one issue with it that renders it effectively useless. Namely once you've typed in the delayed messages and closed the window, I know of no way to ever edit or replace those messages. So if you later edit your scen and want to make the message come earlier or later, or if you have a typo, or want to re-use the scen-map and sides for a new scen in the same Battleset, the delayed messages cannot be changed! For CTRL-F10 to be usable this would have to be fixed.

I agree that the suggested enhancement would make the feature much more functional. However, I can also see more bugs and other issues introduced as a result of trying to implement it.

The bottom line is, it currently works. It may not be optimal, but it could be far worse. Be careful what you wish for... [;)]